Coping With Moving Stress: 7 Strategies

Moving Tips

Moving is stressful. It doesn’t matter if everything goes perfectly, you’re still going to feel some stress about the whole process. There isn’t much you can do to stop from feeling stressed out about your move. Fortunately, there are a lot of things you can do to deal with that moving stress in order to avoid some of the negative affects.

7 Strategies for Dealing with Stress When Moving

As a moving company, we’ve seen our fair share of stressed-out people on moving day and we’ve learned some of the best ways to cope. Here are 7 of our best ways to feel calmer during your moving process:

1. Always Have a Plan

The best way to mitigate stress from a complicated process like moving is to have a plan in place. Use a moving checklist to make sure things are getting done at the right times, and use moving-related apps to further keep track of and delegate tasks.

2. Call The Professionals

Trying to handle the entire move on your own is only going to stress you out more – plus DIY moves can actually end up being more costly than you would expect. If you hire a professional moving company (and packing services too) you can trust that your belongings are in good hands and won’t have to stress about the physical part of the move.

3. Declutter First

This might seem counter-productive (why would adding more work to the move reduce your stress?) but actually, getting rid of clutter in your home will help you feel much more organized which will keep you much more relaxed.

4. Let Yourself Grieve

Even if you’re excited about your move, there is still likely to be a feeling of grief associated with moving to a new home and leaving an old one behind. This is especially true if you're moving to a new city or if you are moving for reasons out of your control. It’s ok to feel sad about leaving your home – so let yourself embrace the feeling for a while and say goodbye properly. Then get to work making your new house feel like home.

5. Make Time for Exercise/Hobbies

During the moving process, a lot of people get so focused on the moving activities that they forget to do anything else they usually do. Skipping out on regular exercise or not participating in the hobbies you’re used to (like reading, or painting) can cause unnecessary tension and unhappiness.

6. Try to Eat and Sleep Well

The closer it gets to moving day the more trouble you might have sleeping and the more you might be tempted to “just order a pizza” after a long day of packing or planning. But, when it comes to stress relief, getting enough sleep and eating healthy are very important. Try to take the time out of your day to have proper meals and go to sleep on time.

7. Ask for Help

If you’re feeling really stressed out about your upcoming move, the best thing you can do is to ask for help. This can mean asking for help from friends and family to organize/pack to help you have more time to get everything done. This can also mean asking for help from a professional like a counselor if you’re feeling undue stress or sadness about moving.


If you’re planning a move soon and want to cope with the stress using tip number 2, you can quickly and easily get a free moving estimate from us.

Moving Tips

Published on: 9/24/2018

Updated on: 7/18/2024